ogc thoughts
It is a bit of a risk to expose Surkamp this way, but, as reported by one writer, odds are that other teams are at their 40-man max like the Giants and won't claim him. I would say that this is due to the Rule 5 Draft pushing teams to roster players they don't want to lose. Still, if some team likes Surkamp more than one of their 40, they will claim him.
If unclaimed, it is reported that since this is his first one, the Giants can re-assign him to Fresno and hold him there. Should he be placed on the 40 again and DFAed again, then should he be unclaimed again, he could decline assignment and declare himself a free agent.
I like what Surkamp did previously and what he has done in his recovery from his TJS, but if we lose him, se la vie. I have reached the point that I trust the Giants brain trust to make the call on a player and what they think is right.
Sabean and gang has been extraordinarily good at not missing much when trading away players or just plain letting them go, and especially at keeping around the interesting ones who might be good ones, like Cain, Lincecum, Sandoval, Posey, Bumgarner, Belt and Crawford. Who have gotten away? Foulke, Howry, Liriano but he caused the Twins to waste Mauer's and Morneau's peak seasons, maybe Villanueva and Correia, and Wheeler is a ticking time bomb. That's minor compared to what we have gotten in trade: Schmidt, Snow, Burke, Livan, Nen, Winn, Pence, Scutaro, among others.
If Surkamp moves on and prove the Giants wrong, that's what happens with calculated risks, sometimes they backfire. Fans get mad at mistakes, but I feel that any GM who does not skate on the edge isn't doing everything he can to get us to the promised land ... again, for the third time, one must also remember.
Fans should want their GM to take some risks, to push the envelope some, and pick up some big gains in the process. Like, though they had a full rotation already, had Tanaka been available, maybe they go ahead and bid for him and maybe win him, then figure out what to do with six starters (apparently Tanaka's team isn't happy that the new posting system limits them to $20M posting fee, and thus are keeping him for one more season - they control him for two more - for $8M and probably will post him next off-season; which is perfect for us, as we'll have a better idea of where Lincecum, Hudson, and Vogelsong are with their major league careers by next off-season, and perhaps be very interested in entering the contest for his services).
But I think I can say pretty confidently that should we lose him, he won't go on and be a Johan Santana who moves on to become an ace. That rarely happens period, and hasn't happened to the Giants so far, though Liriano came close and Wheeler is still out there. And his stats, while nice in the minors, wasn't overwhelming either, like Lincecum's or Bumgarner's were. But you never know, hence the term "calculated risk". It is unlikely he comes back to hurt us, but that risk is there.
Meanwhile, it looks like Pill is signing with a Korean team and that will open up one 40-man roster spot for the Giants. Now, if another team comes into the situation where they need to DFA someone they otherwise might have kept, that is, take their calculated risk, the Giants are in position now to grab a flier, like they did with Rosario last season. He did OK but not that great, and while he'll be competing for a spot, I don't see him winning a spot, not with Hembree and Machi around. But that's baseball too, that's why you play the games, because you never know.
In other news, the Giants appeared to have added a number of players, as reported by Pavlovic:
If unclaimed, it is reported that since this is his first one, the Giants can re-assign him to Fresno and hold him there. Should he be placed on the 40 again and DFAed again, then should he be unclaimed again, he could decline assignment and declare himself a free agent.
I like what Surkamp did previously and what he has done in his recovery from his TJS, but if we lose him, se la vie. I have reached the point that I trust the Giants brain trust to make the call on a player and what they think is right.
Sabean and gang has been extraordinarily good at not missing much when trading away players or just plain letting them go, and especially at keeping around the interesting ones who might be good ones, like Cain, Lincecum, Sandoval, Posey, Bumgarner, Belt and Crawford. Who have gotten away? Foulke, Howry, Liriano but he caused the Twins to waste Mauer's and Morneau's peak seasons, maybe Villanueva and Correia, and Wheeler is a ticking time bomb. That's minor compared to what we have gotten in trade: Schmidt, Snow, Burke, Livan, Nen, Winn, Pence, Scutaro, among others.
If Surkamp moves on and prove the Giants wrong, that's what happens with calculated risks, sometimes they backfire. Fans get mad at mistakes, but I feel that any GM who does not skate on the edge isn't doing everything he can to get us to the promised land ... again, for the third time, one must also remember.
Fans should want their GM to take some risks, to push the envelope some, and pick up some big gains in the process. Like, though they had a full rotation already, had Tanaka been available, maybe they go ahead and bid for him and maybe win him, then figure out what to do with six starters (apparently Tanaka's team isn't happy that the new posting system limits them to $20M posting fee, and thus are keeping him for one more season - they control him for two more - for $8M and probably will post him next off-season; which is perfect for us, as we'll have a better idea of where Lincecum, Hudson, and Vogelsong are with their major league careers by next off-season, and perhaps be very interested in entering the contest for his services).
But I think I can say pretty confidently that should we lose him, he won't go on and be a Johan Santana who moves on to become an ace. That rarely happens period, and hasn't happened to the Giants so far, though Liriano came close and Wheeler is still out there. And his stats, while nice in the minors, wasn't overwhelming either, like Lincecum's or Bumgarner's were. But you never know, hence the term "calculated risk". It is unlikely he comes back to hurt us, but that risk is there.
Meanwhile, it looks like Pill is signing with a Korean team and that will open up one 40-man roster spot for the Giants. Now, if another team comes into the situation where they need to DFA someone they otherwise might have kept, that is, take their calculated risk, the Giants are in position now to grab a flier, like they did with Rosario last season. He did OK but not that great, and while he'll be competing for a spot, I don't see him winning a spot, not with Hembree and Machi around. But that's baseball too, that's why you play the games, because you never know.
In other news, the Giants appeared to have added a number of players, as reported by Pavlovic:
- First, the Giants (I read this somewhere else previously) signed former A's relief pitcher, Andrew Carignan, whose stats looked nice. Could be a nice reclamation project, not sure why the A's let him go, maybe he could be another Casilla for us.
- Also, BA announced the Giants signed Adam Refer and Casey Weathers. The Giants rep for being Pitcher Whisperers appears to be still going strong, the former did well with flaws (walks) and the latter was a high draft pick who has struggled (like Blanco and Arias, who were top prospects once), and the Giants picked up both.
- And a Giants minor leaguer playing in winter league tweeted that a teammate, Mario Lisson, signed with the team. He played a number of positions, but apparently 3B is his regular position.
Carignan appears to be another Hunter Strickland find. He was out for all of 2013, for TJS, and just like Hunter, picked him up the season he missed the full season recovering from that surgery. The twist here is that he also had shoulder surgery as well, that is why he was out for all of 2013, even though he was TJS operated in mid-2012, like Surkamp was. But you look at his stats, and if he is anywhere near what he was doing before in AAA, he could be a good reliever at the major league level. And the Giants reviewed all of his medical files and still signed him. So good luck to him.
Great minds... I just posted up about this as well. Trolling for another Santiago Casilla. That's the story here.
ReplyDeletePeople should go to Shankbone's for a more complete rundown of the prospects the Giants picked up: http://www.yougottalikethesekids.com/2013/12/minor-league-free-agents-trickling-in.html
DeleteBut, yeah, great minds... :^) Except your post was better (and for me, it was just a sidenote), but yeah, the key point is trolling for another Casilla or Blanco.
Surkamp was claimed by the white sox. Seems to me that there is a chance that this turns out to be a mistake by the giants. Hard to say, but my guess it they thought that no one would take him. They were wrong. If healthy and given a chance, Surkamp could end up being a very effective pitcher. Lefty starters who can throw strikes can be hard to come by.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the news!
ReplyDeleteYeah, there is always tat chance. Yes, it was clearly a calculated risk that appears to have backfired. Yes, if healthy, and that is where the Giants have a lot more info than we do, his health. He did not strike out that many in AAA, which was a big red flag for me, I was hoping it was because he was taking longer to recover. I saw some question the Giants depth, but I like Escobar, Kickham, and Petit more than Surkamp, so if we have to go that deep, our season was toast anyway. We will see if they were wrong or not.